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Great Zimbabwe PDF
Great Zimbabwe PDF
Zimbabwe
BRIAN FAGAN
General Editor
Great
Zimbabwe
Martin Hall and Rebecca Stefoff
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
CHAPTER 2
Houses of Stone 18
CHAPTER 3
Reading the Evidence 27
CHAPTER 4
A Shona Empire 34
Glossary 43
Great Zimbabwe and Related Sites 44
Further Reading 46
Index 47
Where and When
Early History
1250
Mapungubwe is well established as a regional
state in southeastern Africa
1300
Construction of stone walls begins at Great
Zimbabwe
1350
Great Zimbabwe, leading Shona power, is part
of widespread trade network
1450
Construction ends at Great Zimbabwe
1500s > 1505
Inhabitants slowly abandon Great Zimbabwe;
successor states Torwa and Rozwi rise to power Portuguese seize port of Kilwa on Indian Ocean
coast
1512 *
Portuguese search for gold in southeastern
Africa, disrupting African trade network
Archaeological History
I
n the 14th and 15th centuries, the city of Kilwa on the East
African coast was a thriving trade center with as many as
20,000 inhabitants. The people of Kilwa traded cloth from the
local weaving industry for gold from the African interior, glass
beads from India, and fine pottery from China. Dhows, triangular-
sailed ships that crossed the Indian Ocean, crowded Kilwa's harbor.
But one day in 1505, a different sort of fleet arrived. Its 22
European ships carried 1,500 soldiers commanded by Viceroy
Francisco de Almeida of Portugal, under orders from his king to
seize Kilwa.
East Africans had seen such ships before. Just six years earlier
the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama, the first European to sail
around the tip of Africa, had landed at several East African ports on
his way to India. Returning to Portugal, he had told the king about
the prosperity and safe harbors of these trading ports. Portugal
wanted some of those ports to expand its trading empire.
9 / encounters.
After Almeida's fleet arrived, the sheikh who ruled Kilwa fled.
The Portuguese replaced him with a sheikh they could control, then
set about tightening their grip on Kilwa and other ports, especially
Sofala to the south, in what is now Mozambique. Their arrival
launched an era of European conquest and colonization in the region.
It also began the Europeans' long and frustrating quest for the
mythical civilizations they thought lay hidden in the African interior.
The Europeans never found the places they sought, but in time they
came upon the lasting monument of a former African civilization:
the massive city of Great Zimbabwe. With masterfully built stone
walls snaking across a rocky ridge and walls and towers dotting the
plain below, Great Zimbabwe would become a source of mysteries
Monomotapa was "covered over with plates of gold." These stories Set in a lost African city
were inspired by the myth of Prester John, whom Europeans imag- linked to the biblical king
Solomon, the 1885 adven-
ined to be a rich and powerful Christian emperor living on the
ture novel King Solomon's
fringe of the known world. Whenever European explorers heard of Mines captured one of
a mighty kingdom beyond the horizon, they thought they were on the myths about Great
Zimbabwe's origins. This
the verge of finding him at last.
poster is for the 1937
The Portuguese in Sofala never found the wealthy realms they movie, one of several
imagined. A few adventurers, however, di'd come into brief contact film versions.
area with broken liquor bottles and old boots, and were rewarded
with small amounts of gold.
In 1890, Mashonaland came under the control of Cecil Rhodes,
a British financier who organized the British South Africa Company
to establish a colony there. Fascinated with Great Zimbabwe,
Rhodes sponsored new excavations of the site, aimed at unearthing
both treasure and knowledge. Theodore Bent—who had the
support of two leading British scientific organizations, the Royal
Geographic Society and the British Association for the Advancement
of Science—led the first "scientific" study. Bent had specialized in
the study of the Phoenicians, an ancient Mediterranean and Near
Eastern people. He thought at first that the African interior had
little to offer an archaeologist. The ruins of Great Zimbabwe, he
claimed, were African and not very ancient. Then he came upon
some of the most striking artifacts ever found at the site: large birds
carved from stone, sitting atop stone pillars. These reminded Bent
of ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern artifacts. Soon he had
decided that the ruins were not African after all. Arabs, he claimed,
had built them—but he also detected, perhaps not surprisingly,
a Phoenician influence.
A journalist named Richard N. Hall, whom Rhodes's company
placed in charge of the ruins, wrote the next chapter in the
mythology of Great Zimbabwe. Hall worked there from 1901 to
1904—to the lasting regret of later experts. His methods were
forceful and destructive. In the course of "restoring" the ruins to
what he thought had been their former appearance, Hall cleared
away layer upon layer of deposits that would have given much valu-
able information to careful scientific researchers. In his report to
Rhodes, Hall echoed Bent's verdict, saying that one of "the more
great zimbabwe /16
G
reat Zimbabwe's name refers to houses of stone, but the
site contains no houses in the ordinary sense of the word.
Instead, massive stone walls snake across the landscape,
enclosing areas both large and small. Piles of tumbled stones mark
the places where other walls once stood. These enclosures and
walls are the remains of the city that once dominated the
Zimbabwe Plateau.
Great Zimbabwe is in south-central Zimbabwe, 17 miles south-
east of the town of Masvingo, in an area where climate and
resources were favorable to settlers. The site is more than 3,000 feet
above sea level, cooler than the hot coastal plain. It is free of the
tsetse fly, which in many other parts of Africa infects both humans
and livestock with disease-causing parasites. The plateau's grassy
19 /Houses of stone.
plains were ideal for cattle grazing, and its scattered trees and
forests provided the builders of Great Zimbabwe with timber for
fuel and construction. Granite hills and rock outcroppings yielded
gold, iron, copper, and tin.
Equally important was the granite itself, which cracks in a pro-
cess that geologists call exfoliation. The change in temperature
between the warm days and chilly nights causes the rock to split
into natural building blocks, flat-sided slabs between three and
seven inches thick. The people of the plateau learned to speed up
the production of these slabs by heating the surface of the granite
with fire and then cooling it suddenly with water.
This round house built of
Many thousands of stones went into the building of Great mud-plastered poles with a
Zimbabwe. The sprawling site covers about 1,800 acres, which cone-shaped thatched roof
is typical of the traditional
archaeologists have divided into three general areas: the Hill, the
Shona homes that most
Valley, and the Outer City. likely filled the stone enclo-
The first sight that greets visitors is the Hill. Its steep sides rise sures of Great Zimbabwe.
The early builders of Great 1300. During the second phase, in the 14th century, Great
Zimbabwe laid stones of
Zimbabwe's builders produced their finest walls, using stones that
various sizes together to
form irregular walls (left). A had been carefully trimmed to fit neatly together and laying them
bit later, in the mid-14th in even courses, sometimes setting them in decorative patterns such
century, more accom-
as zigzags or chevrons, a V-shaped design. During the third phase,
plished builders trimmed
and matched stones to in the 15th century, the quality of stonework declined for unknown
form even rows and built reasons. Walls were made of irregularly sized stones, sometimes
decorative bands into the piled crudely together or forcefully wedged into place.
walls (right).
The focal point of the Valley is the largest African stone ruin south
of the Sahara Desert. Known as the Great Enclosure, this oval space is
surrounded by an 800-foot-long wall, 32 feet high and 17 feet thick
in places. The massive wall is thicker at the bottom than at the top,
making it very stable. Along part of the enclosure, an inner wall runs
parallel to the main wall, with a deep, narrow passageway between
the two. This passageway leads to the Great Enclosure's most striking
feature: the Conical Tower. This solid, cone-shaped structure is 30 feet
high and 18 feet across at the base. The Great Enclosure also contains
a number of smaller enclosures and dhoka platforms.
23 /houses of stone.
The purpose of the Great Enclosure, like much else about Great
Zimbabwe, has been widely debated. Various investigators have
identified it as a temple, the residence of the king's wives, or a pri-
vate community set aside for members of the royal court or other
elite citizens. The archaeologist Thomas Huffman has suggested that
the Great Enclosure may have been a school where young women
underwent training and rituals to prepare them for initiation into
adult society. He bases this suggestion on the fact that some African
cultures in the region maintain such schools today, and have done
so for generations.
Beyond the Valley enclosures is the Outer City, the least-known
part of the site. Once the
densely crowded home of
most of Great Zimbabwe's
inhabitants, today it consists
mostly of the remains of
dhaka huts, with occasional
stone enclosures scattered
about the surrounding coun-
tryside. Based on his exami-
This travel poster from
nation of the site, Huffman 1938, featuring the Conical
has estimated that Great Tower and a stone bird,
Zimbabwe could have housed promotes the myth that
Great Zimbabwe had
as many as 18,000 people at
some connection with the
its peak, making it a true biblical Queen of Sheba.An
urban center in the midst of African man kneels before
the queen's ghostly figure,
medieval southern Africa.
reflecting the racist view of
When Europeans encoun- Great Zimbabwe's non-
tered Great Zimbabwe in the African origins.
great Zimbabwe
Radiodarbon Reality
Radiocarbon dating
can be applied to any
organic material,
including human
remains, such as this
partial skeleton exca-
vated at Great
Zimbabwe in 1991, *
The body had been :
buried between two .
stone walls of a ruin
northwest of the main
site's Hill complex.
other words, how long ago the sample died.
Archaeologists use radiocarbon dating to discover
the ages of human and animal remains and of
wooden structures.
A team of scienüsts at the University of
Chicago developed radiocarbon datìng in the
years afterWorld War II. They tested it first on
samples of wood from an ancient Egypüan tomb the age of which A laboratory worker
was already known from other sources. After the method had been uses a microscope
measure a small
shown to be reliabie, arcnaeologists began usmg it to measure the age sample of organic
of all kinds of materials, induding hair, leather, wall paintings, blood, matter—wh/ch can
textiles, pottery, wood, bone, and the dried remaíns of insects, grain, incíude bone, wood,
and wine. They also broadened their investigations beyond Egypt to charcoal, or cloth—
from an ancient ari-
ther Mediterranean sites and then to archaeological0 sites around
fact Using coffaon
the world. dating, scientists can
Beginning in 1958, the archaeologist Keith Robinson applied determine the age of
radiocarbon daüng to Great Zimbabwe, testing tímber poles he found such sampfes.
while excavaüng a trench in the Western Enclosure. He obtained a date
of 1065 CE (plus or minus 150 years).This means that the trees from
which the poles were made grew between 915 and 1215 CE, although
the poles may have been used in construction at a later date.
Robinson's work was important because it set the building of the
major ruins within the past thousand or so years, much more recent
than the misty depths of anüquity. More recendy, Great Zimbabwe has
been firmly dated from a series of radiocarbon samples that have been
carefully matched with one another and cross-checked for accuracy. As
a result of this applicaüon of modern scientifìc techniques, the age of
Great Zimbabwe is no longer in doubt. The city was built between
1300and 1450 CE.
great zimbabwe /26
The wall surrounding the late 19th century, they felt an awe, inspired by their mistaken ideas
Great Enclosure is 800 feet
about the "mysterious" and "exotic" origins of the ruins. Modern
long. It displays several
characteristic features of
archaeology has given us a more accurate view of Great Zimbabwe's
Great Zimbabwe's architec- origins and history, but the site remains as impressive and as ever,
ture, including rounded cor- a massive memorial to an African past that is still being uncovered.
ners and curved steps.
The Zimbabwean government administers Great Zimbabwe as a
national monument, and in 1986 the United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) named Great
Zimbabwe a World Heritage Site in recognition of its unique and
valuable place in cultural and archaeological history.
3
Reading the
Evidence
W
hat was life like for the people of
Great Zimbabwe? How did they
work, worship, and organize their
society? The Great Zimbabwe people left no written
records, so archaeologists look to other sources for
information about their lives. Two of the most important
sources are the physical objects that the Great Zimbabweans left
The parade of animals—
behind and the stories that their modern descendants tell. baboons, a dog, a bird, and
Some physical objects found at Great Zimbabwe are rare and zebras—on this fragment
special artifacts that probably had great importance during the city's of a soapstone bowl (left)
is one of the most elabo-
heyday. Many are the ordinary relics of everyday life, such as rate decorative carvings
garbage, pottery, and tools. Animal bones, for example, have drawn yet found among the arti-
the attention of archaeozoologists, specialists in the animal life facts of Great Zimbabwe.
A wooden bowl (right)
associated with archaeological sites. They study the kinds of animals bears a carved crocodile.
found at a site, the number of each kind, and when possible, the Both bowls were found in
date and condition of the remains. The remains at Great Zimbabwe the 1890s.
and nearby sites reveal that cattle were the basis of the economy.
Cattle were more than food—they also served as a form of wealth
and a sign of status. People in outlying, low-status settlements
such as villages and farms hunted for wild game to supplement
great zimbabwe /28
their diet of grain. They also kept cattle and other livestock, but
the bones from the best cuts of meat have only been found within
the larger madzimbabwe, or stone enclosures. It appears that the ordi-
nary folk did not consume the prime cattle but rather turned them
over to the elites—the powerful and privileged classes—who lived
in the madzimbabwe.
Archaeologists also learn much from artifacts, humanmade
objects such as utensils and artworks. Pots are an
important and useful kind of arti-
fact—not only do they offer insight
into how they might have been used in
everyday life, but they can often be dated by
stylistic features such as shape, decoration, or
material. In spite of the reckless and destructive methods
of early excavators, Great Zimbabwe has yielded many exam-
ples of pottery, both whole pots and the broken pieces known as
potsherds. Great Zimbabwe pots are round and fall into two general
types. Most are between 9 and \2 inches across, with short, slightly
narrow necks, some with lids. The others are much larger, with
Artifacts such as an iron three or four times the capacity of the smaller pots. The archaeolo-
hoe blade (top) and a gist Peter S. Garlake points out in his book Great Zimbabwe that the
bronze spearhead (bottom)
indicate that the people
smaller vessels are similar to those the Shona people, descendants
of Great Zimbabwe were of the Great Zimbabweans, use today for drinking. The larger ones
skilled metalworkers. Both resemble pots that the Shona use for brewing beer or storing food.
objects date from the
14th or 15th century.
All the Great Zimbabwe pots were formed from lengths of local
clay, wound and coiled into shape and then baked in a wood fire.
Among the other everyday objects found at the site are hun-
dreds of disks between one and two inches across, with small holes
through their centers. Some are made of pottery, others of the
29 /reading the evidence.
Archaeologists on a
I 987 expedition to Great
Zimbabwe excavate an
earthen floor, the last
remains of a hut, or house,
inside the Great Enclosure.
Many areas of the site
remain unexcavated, leav-
ing open the possibility of
future discoveries that will
expand our knowledge of
life at Great Zimbabwe.
soapstone sculptures of birds, and part of an eighth, at various parts A Shona warrior pho-
tographed in the 1920s
of the site. Each bird is about 14 inches tall and sits atop a 3-foot
wears his hair in the same
column. Each has a unique design. Some are decorated with circles style described in 1560 by
on their wings, others with zigzag patterns on their columns, or a European traveler to the
region. Recognizing the
some other distinct feature. Nothing closely resembling these sculp-
Shona as the closest living
tures has been found at any other archaeological site, and their relatives of the Great
meaning cannot be known for certain. Thomas Huffman, however, Zimbabwe people, some
archaeologists have used
thinks that the birds may have represented the spirits of
their culture and legends to
Zimbabwe's kings, who were both political and religious figures. help them interpret Great
Huffman's interpretation of Great Zimbabwe draws upon the sto- Zimbabwe.
G
Richard N. Hall's team reat Zimbabwe's massive stonework is a sign that the city
excavates the area in front
was an important place with a sophisticated political and
of the Conical Tower in
1902. The raised platform
social system. Now that myths about the city's exotic origins
around the tree shows the have been swept away archaeologists and historians have begun to
level of the ground before draw its true story forth from the physical evidence found at the
Hall began his "restora-
tion"—revealing how much
site and from the careful study of additional sources, such as old
material he carted away Portuguese accounts of trade and exploration and African oral tradi-
and dumped, to the regret tions. As a result, a picture has emerged of Great Zimbabwe's place
of later scientists.
in the flow of history in southern Africa.
Before Great Zimbabwe, there was Mapungubwe. Like Great
Zimbabwe, Mapungubwe was a city, the center of a vibrant culture.
35/a shona empire.
but gold was increasingly prized. The best sources of gold lay in golden rhinoceros was most
likely an emblem of royal
the hills of the Zimbabwe Plateau, and Great Zimbabwe was closer power. To the Shona of
to them than Mapungubwe. modern Zimbabwe the
and historians have suggested several reasons for this decline. Great
Zimbabwe was losing its importance in the trade network. Gold
production was down—much of the easily obtainable gold had
been stripped from the region, and areas to the north and west
were becoming important as new sources of both copper and gold.
But Great Zimbabwe's economy had been based on cattle before the
rise of the gold trade. Why couldn't the city continue to thrive on a
cattle-based economy? Some investigators think that the landscape
could no longer support the city's large population. Huge herds of
cattle had overgrazed the grasslands. Most nearby timber had been
cut down. A series of droughts may have struck the area, increasing
the stress on an already overburdened environment.
Whatever the reason, Great Zimbabwe declined in importance,
probably slowly and over a century or longer. The Shona people
of the region formed two new states, the successors to Great
Zimbabwe. In the west was Torwa, whose capital city, Khami, had
stone walls much like those of Great Zimbabwe. Some scholars
think that the "square fortress, of masonry within and without,
built of stones of marvelous size" that Portuguese historian Joao
de Barros described in 1552 was Khami, not Great Zimbabwe. The
other successor state, Rozwi, existed for many decades in and
around the area of Great Zimbabwe.
The arrival of the Portuguese in East Africa in the 16th century
brought instability to the Swahili coast and the Zimbabwe Plateau.
After taking control of Kilwa in 1505, the Portuguese tried to take
over the gold-trading routes to the interior. They never fully suc-
ceeded, but their efforts sparked resistance and war. Constant fight-
ing and the rise of local warlords disrupted trade along routes that
had been used for centuries. Ironically, the Portuguese search for
39 /a shona empire.
Symbol of a Nation
•imbabwe is the only country in the world Whose name is taken
from an archaeological site. The stone birds of (Great Zimbabwe
appear on the national flag, the Official seal, and the country's
currency. Yet Great Zimbabwe's road to recognition as a
national symbol has been a rocky one.
The careful work of archaeologists David Randall-
Maclver and Gertrude Caton-Thompson should have done
away with myths about Great Zimbabwe's origins early in
the 20th century. For years, however, the white rulers of the
The glory of Great
country refused to accept the scientific evidence that black Africans Zimbabwe is a proud
had built Great Zimbabwe, the center of a powerful state. Since the late symbol for the modern
19th century, the country that is now Zimbabwe had been known as nation, which features
Rhodesia, after the British industrialist CecilRhodes who had pioneered the chevron bird on
its flag. The carved
the white settlement and exploitation of the Shona homeland.
Land in Rhodesia was divided on a racial basis, with the coun- soapstone bird
try's whitepopulationcontrolling the best land and resources.With the country's
a strong interest in crushing any African liberation movements official sea/ and on
that arose in the country, Rhodesia's white government resisted its currency,
the notion that black Africans had built Great Zimbabwe,
In the late 1960s, fighting broke out between the white
government and groups such as the Zimbabwe African
National Union (ZANU), which sought greater rights and
powers for black Africans, The government responded by
censoring books and articles about Great Zimbabwe and
punishing scholars who published information and opin-
ions about the site's African origins. A new government
dominated by Rhodesia's black majority took control in
1980, however, and the country's name was changed to
Zimbabwe In honor of the archaeological site that repre-
sents national and racial pride,
great zimbabwe / 40
A late-20th-century artist
painted this imagined
scene of traders at Great
Zimbabwe based on
evidence from the site.
The people wear Shona
hairstyles, and the stone
walls and the Conical Tower
are in the background.
gold broke the links between the gold-producing interior and the
coastal ports. The flow of wealth to the interior stopped. In the
centuries that followed, the Shona people of the Zimbabwe Plateau
suffered slave raids from the coast and invasions by African peoples
from the south. Even before the arrival of the Portuguese, Great
Zimbabwe's economic and political importance had faded. But
during the centuries of turmoil the city was never entirely forgotten.
The local people knew that the site had been the residence of
powerful kings and chiefs in earlier times, and they continued to
use it for religious rites, even after they turned some of its enclosures
into cattle pens in the 19th century. Today, recognized as a major
archaeological site and an emblem of African civilization, Great
Zimbabwe has reclaimed its place in history.
41 /interview.
tribes. Others saw the hand of the Queen Zimbabwe became an important cultural
of Sheba, or the mythical Prester John—a symbol for the liberation movement, and
fabulously wealthy Christian king living a rallying point for the nation's new iden-
deep in Africa, or perhaps in Asia. More tity. Others have put forward bizarre
recent debates have been far more sober, theories of an idyllic, precolonial black
and have focused on the origins of the society, in which everyone lived in a state
people who lived at Great Zimbabwe, and of nature, free from exploitation—a sort
on what the buildings were used for. of black Eldorado. This is improbable.
Some archaeologists believe that there Great Zimbabwe was the center of a state
was cultural continuity between the in which there was clearly inequality and
farming communities who settled the exploitation. Overall, though, it's hardly
Zimbabwe Plateau early in the present era surprising that there should be such con-
and the Great Zimbabweans. Others have troversies. Important archaeological sites
argued that Great Zimbabwe's cultural such as these are important cultural and
links were to the south, as communities political symbols, and we should expect
crossed the Limpopo River in search of them to generate controversy.
new economic opportunities. There has
RS: If a new round of active excavation were
also been a good deal of discussion about
to begin at Great Zimbabwe, what would
what the buildings were used for, partic-
you like to investigate? Where would you
ularly the Great Enclosure. What is certain,
dig, and what would you look for?
though, is that this was a place of great
cultural and political significance in a MH: We still know so little about everyday life
major precolonial society. at Great Zimbabwe—about how ordinary
people lived, what they ate, the crafts in
RS: What effects have this controversy had on
which they specialized, how households
political life in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe?
were made up. Modern archaeology has
MH: When the country was Rhodesia, the made great advances in deducing the
white minority regime hated the idea nature of the everyday economy, gender
that Great Zimbabwe was built by black relations, and how people marked their
people, and tried hard to suppress this identities through clothes and orna-
suggestion. One leading archaeologist ments. There is still the potential to inves-
was hounded from the country, and the tigate aspects such as these at Great
regime supported crackpot interpretations Zimbabwe—a wonderful challenge for
that would support the idea of inherent archaeologists in the future.
white superiority. Not surprisingly, Great
43.
Glossary
MAPUNGUBWE
CULTURAL LANDSCAPE
www.mapungubwe.com
Mapungubwe, on the Limpopo
River, preceded Great
Zimbabwe as a center of power
on the Zimbabwe Plateau.
Occupied primarily in the
12th century, Mapungubwe is
widely known for the rich
Africa, the Mapungubwe margins of the Zimbabwe
goods found in its graves, par-
Cultural Landscape is recog- Plateau, where the Lundi River
ticularly for a small, gold
nized as a UNESCO World flows toward its junction with
rhinoceros found in a grave
Heritage Site. the Sabi River. With only one
excavated in 1932. A symbol of
and two stone enclosures
the Mapungubwe king's power,
NENGA AND PAMUUYA respectively, these were small
the golden rhino is considered
regional power centers. Their
one of South Africa's most Nenga and PaMuuya are good
architecture is similar to that of
important national treasures. examples of smaller madzimbab-
Great Zimbabwe.
Located about 283 miles north we, or stone houses. These two
of the city of Pretoria in South sites are on the southwestern
.46
Further Reading
Index
Pictures and captions are indicated by page Great Enclosure, 6, 10, 22—23, 26, Rhodes, Cecil, 7, 15,40
numbers in bold. 29,42 Rhodesia, 7, 40, 42
Robinson, Keith, 25
African origins, 7, 14-17, 21, 40, Hall, Martin, 41-42 Rozwi, 6, 38
41,42 Hall, Richard N., 7, 15-16, 30, 34
Almeida, Francisco de, 8 Hill complex, 6, 19-21 Santos, Joao de, 7 , 1 1
Artifacts, 21, 27-31, 35. See also Birds, Huffman, Thomas, 23, 31-32 Sheba, Queen of, 7, 11, 13, 23, 42
Disks, Pottery, Soapstone carvings Shona people, 14, 19, 29, 31-32,
Khami, 38 38,39,40,
Balcony, 6, 20 Kilwa, 6, 8-9, 36 Soapstone carvings, 29, 30-31, 32.
Barros, Joao de, 10, 38 King Solomon's Mines, 11 See also Birds
Beach, David, 32 Sofala, 9, 10,36
Bent, Theodore, 15, 16 Madzimbabwe, 28. See also Stone Solomon, King, 7, 11, 13
Birds, 15, 20, 21, 23, 30-31, 39 enclosures and walls Stone enclosures and walls, 6, 9, 10,
Maps, 6,9, 12, 37 17, 18-23, 26, 35, 37, 38, 39
Caton-Thompson, Gertrude, 7 , 1 7 , Mapungubwe, 6, 34—35 Stratigraphy, 17
21,30,40,41 Mashonaland, 7, 15 Symbaoe, 12
Cattle, 28, 37, 38 Mauch, Karl, 7, 13, 14, 20
Cleft Rock Enclosure, 32 Merensky, Alexander, 13 Timelines, 6-7
Conical Tower, 6, 10, 22, 23, 32, Metalworking, 28, 29 Torwa, 6, 11, 38
34,40 Monoliths, 20, 21, 32 Trade networks, 6, 8, 30, 35, 36, 37,
Conservation, 33 Monomotapa, 10-11, 13 38,40
Construction styles, 21-22 Mutapa, 11
UNESCO, 7, 26, 33
Daily life, 27-32 Ogilvie, John, 10
Dhaka, 20, 2 1 , 2 2 , 2 3 Ophir, 13 Valley complex, 6,18, 19, 21-23
Disks, 29 Outer City, 19, 23 Venda people, 31—32
Eastern Enclosure, 6,16, 20, 21 Pikirayi, Innocent, 33 Western Enclosure, 6, 20, 21, 25, 32
Ethnography, 31—32 Portugal and Portuguese, 6, 8-9, Whitty, Anthony, 21
Exfoliation, 19 10-11,38-39
Pottery, 27-29 Zimbabwe, 7, 17, 39
Fernandes, Antonio, 10 Prester John, 11, 12, 42 Zimbabwe African National Union
(ZANU), 39
Gama, Vasco da, 8 Racial issues, 14, 16, 17, 39, 41. See Zimbabwe Plateau, 11, 12, 35, 36, 38
Garlake, Peter S., 28 also African origins
Goes, Damiao de, 10 Radiocarbon dating, 7, 24-25
Gold, 6, 10-11, 14-15, 29-30, Randall-Maclver, David, 7, 16, 40, 41
35, 36, 38,40 Renders, Adam, 13
Martin Hall is a historical archaeologist who has researched and written about
the first farming communities of southern Africa, the origins of complex societies, and
the archaeology of colonial settlement. He worked in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa,
before joining the University of Cape Town as professor of historical archaeology. He
has published more than one hundred papers and several books, and served as the
president of the World Archaeological Congress. He is now deputy vice chancellor of
the University of Cape Town.
Rebecca Stefoff is the author of many books for young readers. History and
science are among her favorite subjects. She has previously written about archaeology
in Finding the Lost Cities and The Palace of Minos at Knossos, another book in this series.